One of things I've been working on since we moved to Japan is baking sourdough things. I've been doing it for a few years, but I started to read and research more on it and delve into whole meal sourdough baking. I have to say, I've gotten pretty good and had great success so far!
I've made loaves of bread, English muffins, and my new obsession, croissants! All whole, organic grain too!
This beast is the starter! It's a dark rye starter (basically, water and flour mixed together and left to sit in the open air; the wild yeast in the air and the flour gets fed and grows, making it expand, bubble and ferment a little to give it that sour taste)
Here are a few pictures of croissant making! I take the starter, spelt & white wheat flour, sugar, salt, water/milk, egg and mix it up, give it a little kneading and let it sit and rise for about 24 hours. (It rises the first 2-3, then it "retards" in the fridge overnight to really develop the flavor. Then you take it out, and let it come to room temperature and rise again. No heat rising here! It kills the probiotics and wild yeast; negating all the delicious and super nutritious benefits: defeating the purpose of this kind of sourdough!)
After that, you roll out butter into a square, put it onto the square of dough, and begin a process of creating an envelope and rolling and folding the dough to create the layers of butter and dough (that's what makes it flaky!)
I made some dark chocolate filled ones...heavennnnnnnn!
Cut into triangles and roll them up!
Then cover and let them rise for a much longer time than you would with "traditional" bread. (This is the no heat rising thing again; it just takes a much longer time.)
Then, brush with milk or egg wash and bake away!
They were SO good!
I only have 2 pictures of Engish Muffin adventures, but they were amazing! We used them to make breakfast sandwiches, yum!
